Britain built some of the safest roads

Summary

How Britain built some of the world’s safest roadsThe death rate per mile driven has declined 22-fold since 1950.A century ago, these were the cars on Britain’s roads. Forget driving lessons or tests; to get behind the wheel legally, all you needed was a paper license, which cost the equivalent of around 25 pence today.Cars had no seatbelts and, of course, no airbags. There were no mirrors to let you see traffic behind. There were no flashing indicators, so your signal to turn left or right was simply sticking your arm out. The brakes were poor, and emergency braking was impossible. Steering was stiff and clunky, and the headlights were weak, making it difficult to see much at night.Combine this with the lack of pavements for pedestrians, the lack of signs or traffic signals, and the absence of enforced rules, and you can understand why it was a dangerous time to be on the roads.Throughout the 1920s and ‘30s, between 5,000 and 7,000 people died in road accidents each year.Fast-forward to today. Around 1,700 people die in road incidents each year in the UK: about a quarter of what it used to be, despite there being 16 times more vehicles on the road and 33 times as many miles driven.Per mile driven, the death rate declined 22-fold since 1950.You can see all of this in the chart below.If road deaths per mile driven were still as high as in 1950, then the UK would not see 1,700 road deaths per year, but 37,000.1Today, the United Kingdom has some of the lowest road death rates in the world.2 You can see it compared to other countries in the chart.How did road traffic become so safe in the UK? In this article, I want to journey through the history of policies, norms, and transport innovations that have saved thousands of lives yearly. These lessons help identify what works and what doesn’t, so that other parts of the world can make their roads much safer. Globally, around 1.2 million people die in road accidents every year. Yet this is one of the world’s most overlooked ...